Making Contact

On this episode of Making Contact, we look at the privatization of our earth's most precious resource – water. People around the world have been organizing against this privatization in the face of climate change and rising sea levels that threaten to contaminate our limited drinking water supplies.

Three years after Hurricane Maria hit, Puerto Ricans are still reeling from its effects and aftereffects. We bring you a Haymarket Books talk by Marisol LeBrón, Yarimar Bonilla, and Molly Crabapple, on a collection of essays called "Aftershocks of Disaster: Puerto Rico Before and After the Storm" which discusses the legacy of Maria, and also community organizing in the face of government abandonment. This piece includes clips from the Short Film : "Aftershocks of Disaster," directed by Juan C. Dávila, and produced by Yarimar Bonilla.

Most of us have a home to shelter in place during COVID -19. But what about the homeless? We take a look at life on the street before COVID-19, following two women as they undergo several evictions from encampments. And then we talk about the specific challenges the homeless face during COVID-19 and what we can do to fix the housing crisis.

Making Contact's Community Storytelling Fellows Vincent Medina and Isabella Zizi share deep and personal stories on Native American organizing and activism on Ohlone lands in the Bay area.

Why is that the deaths of Black women at the hands of police don't seem to generate as much outrage as the deaths of Black men? Is it because Black women are valued less? Is it a combination of reasons? Or is it just a figment of some people's imagination?

Given the election, and the difference between popular votes and electoral votes, we revisit our show on the Electoral College. It's history in the era of slavery, and how it works today.

Voting in one of the most momentous presidential elections in the nation's history is over. The morning after polls closed nearly 136 million ballots had been counted. But as has been reported for weeks ahead of the election, there is no clear winner, and the tally of absentee ballots continues. In this election special, we go to Arizona, Florida, and Oregon to hear from voters there. And later in the program we'll hear about election power grabs, and some of the legal fights that have been taking place to protect the rights of voters.

Voter suppression and its target's aren't new phenomena. People of color and the poor have always been dissuaded from voting. We take a look at how race and voter suppression might play a role in the 2020 election, and we talk to organizers from the South who are fighting it, and ensuring that everyone has the right to vote not just in this election, but in every single election.

Activists in the Latinx immigrant community of Los Angeles share what they do to take care of their mental health. The issues these activists work on often impact their personal lives, and people who work in the service of others are particularly at risk of burnout and compassion fatigue. Self-care becomes a "selfless act" when it allows activists to stay healthy and do their work in a sustainable way.

On this episode, we'll explore felon disenfranchisement and the battle to restore the voting rights of people on parole. We will also turn our attention to the Native American vote and examine the ways in which their votes are being suppressed.